Main Street Appearance Project

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The Downtown Stakeholder's Forum is a place for anyone with a connection to downtown Vancouver to collaborate with residents, business owners and City and local agency staff on community-driven projects to enhance downtown Vancouver's atmosphere, community engagement, marketing and vitality. The forum was created through a partnership between Vancouver's Downtown Association and the City of Vancouver.

The forum meets every fourth Tuesday of the month at 1 p.m. in Vancouver City Hall (415 W. Sixth St.). The meetings are open to the public.

In 2019, the Downtown Stakeholders Forum will work with City of Vancouver staff to coordinate improvements to the appearance of Main Street in downtown Vancouver between 5th and 15th streets.

This year's work builds on 2009 and 2015 studies that offered ideas to improve Main Street’s design and appearance. Copies of these studies can be found in the Document Library.

Main Street is downtown Vancouver’s historic street for retail, dining and other entertainment options. With all the new activity downtown and on the waterfront, the Downtown Stakeholders Forum is looking to make Main Street more attractive for visitors.

The group will review all existing litter receptacles, bike racks, streetlights, landscaping, sidewalks finishes and more for style, function and location. Your feedback will help us prioritize the implementation of these improvements.

For questions about this project, please contact John Collum in the City's Community and Economic Development Department at John.Collum@cityofvancouver.us.

The Downtown Stakeholder's Forum is a place for anyone with a connection to downtown Vancouver to collaborate with residents, business owners and City and local agency staff on community-driven projects to enhance downtown Vancouver's atmosphere, community engagement, marketing and vitality. The forum was created through a partnership between Vancouver's Downtown Association and the City of Vancouver.

The forum meets every fourth Tuesday of the month at 1 p.m. in Vancouver City Hall (415 W. Sixth St.). The meetings are open to the public.

In 2019, the Downtown Stakeholders Forum will work with City of Vancouver staff to coordinate improvements to the appearance of Main Street in downtown Vancouver between 5th and 15th streets.

This year's work builds on 2009 and 2015 studies that offered ideas to improve Main Street’s design and appearance. Copies of these studies can be found in the Document Library.

Main Street is downtown Vancouver’s historic street for retail, dining and other entertainment options. With all the new activity downtown and on the waterfront, the Downtown Stakeholders Forum is looking to make Main Street more attractive for visitors.

The group will review all existing litter receptacles, bike racks, streetlights, landscaping, sidewalks finishes and more for style, function and location. Your feedback will help us prioritize the implementation of these improvements.

For questions about this project, please contact John Collum in the City's Community and Economic Development Department at John.Collum@cityofvancouver.us.

My family visiting from Boston were shocked at the vagrants and homeless along our city's downtown streets and parks. On the east coast, this is rarely seen. Police insist homeless do not camp out in front of storefronts. Homeless shelters are miles away from the downtown retail/tourist core.

Camping is for the forest, not in front of a storefront or Esther Short Park!

I am a long term resident of Vancouver and know Main Street very well. We need to invest in our sidewalks and street landscaping. The priority should be the public use, not the private use. If a business would like to have sidewalk seating, then it needs to fit within the space and provide a clear four to five feet (more preferably) of room between their private fenced area and the sidewalk. I don't accept the squeezed areas of our street that have furniture and landscaping that funnels the rest of us to a single file in order to pass... Continue reading

In many cities around the world, pedestrianizing their most important shopping and entertainment thoroughfare led to a 10% or greater increase in revenue for businesses along that thoroughfare overnight. If Vancouver wants to see similar success on Main Street, we should consider pedestrianizing the areas between Fourth Plain and MacLoughlin, and between 12th and 6th.

I want to share a quick story about a little town similar to ours and how they successfully attracted visitors.

This little town has one Main St with a few offshoots, and they wanted it to grow. What they did was, they wired the entire area for free WiFi to encourage people to sit in their coffee bars and restaurants and relax with their laptops. They also made parking entirely FREE. They built several 3 story parking garages, as well as street parking, and added a minuscule local retail tax of 1/4 percent to pay for it all.

Just a few weeks ago, Waste Connections changed their recyclable garbage pickup schedule so that the downtown area and Main St pickup is Monday morning, with cans having to be placed by 6:00 AM. (Previously it was mid-week.) This is a huge problem, because it means that the streets are now lined with garbage cans ALL WEEKEND LONG. Many businesses in the area are closed on weekends, so they put out their cans on Friday evening, some on Saturday evening. So, during the busiest times for vistors and tourists - Friday, Saturday and Sunday - we've got trash cans all... Continue reading

Downtown Vancouver has grown to the point where I believe Zoning rules are now necessary. Retail spaces need to be for retail shops, food and salons; there must be a moratorium on any further renting of retail storefronts as office space. I look at old pictures of Main St as a bustling hub of retail with much walking traffic and activity, but now, we have wastelands of blocks where the beautiful ground floor retail storefronts are taken up by lawyers and insurance hawkers and real estate offices, etc. These businesses do not maintain the outside of their storefronts either, they... Continue reading

Quit giving tax breaks to developers who promise mixed use but somehow never fill the retail spaces in their buildings with actual retail, not office uses. How about a sliding scale of decreasing tax breaks for unkept promises?

Find ways to encourage Downtown property owners to rent to quality tenants, not just anybody with a month's rent in hand.

No more pot shops/churches/social service providers, please.

Activate the street. Do not charge extra fees for sidewalk seating/tables.

I think people are attracted to small local businesses. Walking around and finding different kinds of shops to see and feel. Keeping a unique feeling to each space that allows businesses to create their own voice. I think the diversity is attractive and making space accessible to small businesses is key. People just want something to do outside of day to day mundane activity even if it’s just walking around taking in sights and sounds.

I enjoy walking downtown. I am close to everything I love, however, I have tripped over sidewalks in disrepair on three separate occasions. I received horrific bruises, and luckily the only thing that was broken was my pride. It concerns me that we have so many sidewalks that are becoming unsafe, and unsightly.

I often see elderly attempting to maneuver their rolling walkers around the sidewalks and see the struggle that they have. My own mother one of them.

Please place repair of the sidewalks on the top of the list of improvements.